At CEMEX, safety is not just a word: it is ingrained into our core values and of utmost importance every day. We strive to create a healthy work environment for our employees across our operations, and every country where we operate has an improvement plan targeted towards helping us achieve our common target of zero injuries, Zero4Life. Our CEO Fernando A. González has often stressed that Health & Safety is our top priority; there can be no greater job satisfaction than knowing people always return home safely to their families.

Our efforts to continuously promote employee safety have led to various initiatives throughout our operations. Recently CEMEX launched a new suite of real-time information safety tools in the United States with a goal to provide better focus and visibility on preventive activities that will be critical to eliminating injuries in our U.S. plants. Since safety is for all of our employees outside the plant as well, employees at the corporate office in Israel took part in a training program that taught them how to stay safe and healthy in their day-to-day work.

CEMEX’s efforts in safety have been recognized by local organizations and governments. In France we received an award for our risk-prevention action plan to protect employees liable to exposure to lead paint, which was so comprehensive that the awards organization produced a video about our efforts in order to teach best practices in the industry. Likewise, in Nicaragua, the National Council of Hygiene and Safety at Work has awarded us with the “Leading Company” recognition for the sixth time for our management systems that have spurred a preventive culture in health and industrial safety.

Another top priority for CEMEX is the safety of our communities. Our teams have proactively identified ways that they can promote employee safety and also positively influence our neighbors. For example, when our UK team discovered that 80% of trips and falls across all UK industries result in fractures, a special campaign was created to teach measures that would help prevent these injuries. Similarly, in Colombia our colleagues were concerned that highway accidents were the second leading cause of preventable death in the country and decided to launch a campaign that would encourage safe driving habits among our truck drivers and the general population.

As a company we consistently monitor our safety performance according to international standards and have demonstrated results in regards to Lost Time Injuries (LTI). One of our ready-mix plants in Egypt recently celebrated an amazing 780 days with zero LTI’s, while in Panama we have reduced our LTI rate to .44, well below the 3.5 industry average. Our team in Poland has one of the lowest incident rates in the industry and recently formalized a strategic cooperation with the Central Institute for Labour Protection - National Research Institute, in order to jointly promote research and development in the area of improving employee safety. We will continue building a better future for our employees, customers, and communities, and always with a goal to find even more ways to improve.

CEMEX is a global building materials company that provides high quality products and reliable service to customers and communities in more than 50 countries. CEMEX has a rich history of improving the well-being of those it serves through innovative building solutions, efficiency advancements, and efforts to promote a sustainable future.